The Nati

The 'Bastards have a new CD to be released by Fat Possum Records, the same label that is home to the likes of the Black Keys, RL Burnside, Solomon Burke and others. They are a great local band, that didn't ever really get a lot of attention here in town. Head over to Southgate House on March 4th for their official CD Relase party (with another great local band Pearlene). It's only 6 bucks...

Right Idea, Wrong Implementation. The United Way is missing something, and that's the idea that the best way to build long term philanthropic partners is not to ask them to dig as deep as they can early in their careers, it's to get them involved in their community. The Young Leaders Society is a great idea that just has the wrong focus.

The article is 100% focused on $ contributions. The fact of the matter is that young professionals have a lot of talent, many come from a background in high school and college of leadership, and they don't get to exploit that when they start at the bottom of the business world. However, they can continue to build their leadership skills through community involvement. Taking leadership positions and helping to drive results at an early age when they have both time and drive. Leave it to the older generation who may not have the enthusiasm nor the time (with long work hours, and children) for volunteering, to open those checkbooks wide. Let the younger generation focus on getting their hands dirty in the community and building their ties to all these great United Way funded groups. So that when the time runs thin, but the bank account is larger, the first thing they will think to do with that extra cash is to donate it to the charities and groups they grew up volunteering with.

Only once in the entire article do they even mention community service:

"Young Leaders also help at charity events. The community involvement has its own rewards. "

Which is promptly followed up with:
"It gives us the opportunity to meet very influential people in the community," Klein said.

Again.. .missing the point. The reason to volunteer in the community is not to meet influential people. The reason you paint a school, attend a children's carnival, work a soup kitchen, build a house is TO HELP THE PEOPLE THAT NEED HELP!

I love the United Way, and I myself donate through my work United Way Campaign. The money is important, and the agencies that UW supports are fantastic (for the most part), but if the UW wants to capture the next generation, quit talking about Leadership Giving Levels, Networking and Suggested Giving, and start talking about the community, volunteering and taking an active role in community organizations.

Rant complete.....

I must say, I haven't been overly impressed by the previous choices by CityBeat for Person/Group of the year. However, this year's selection (Jean Robert de Cavel) is right on! Everyone should read this article, because this is what it's all about to make things happen in the community. It's not about OTR vs. Downtown, or Downtown vs. Inner Suburbs, or Downtown vs. N. KY. It's about getting things done, providing excellence in what you do, and giving back to the community.

While the media has been focused on the negitive, the dangers of downtown, businesses leaving and the lack of development in the city, Jean Robert has been busy opening 4 fantastic restaurants all to rave reviews from dinning public. Jean Robert's Pigall's was the first to open, shortly after the OTR riots (as well as shortly after Jean Robert lost his infant daughter to SIDS). The restaurant is nearly impossible to get into, while it's comparable restaurat (Massionette only wants to talk about Govt Support, and finding a location outside of Cincinnati). He then opened a Bistro (JeanRo) right around the corner, also downtown, and a Vietnamese-French Restaurant in Oakley (Pho-Paris). Finally he is in final stages of his remaking of the popular WildFlour Cafe in Covington. In his spare (?!?!) time, he is a center piece for many fundraising events around the city... all this from a transplant to Cincinnati. If only we had more people like him in this city, people could spend time making dinner/shopping plans downtown, instead of worrying about why a downtown business can't survive in Cincy.

I am going to the Stage Left Series run of Bad Dates at the Playhouse tonight. For those that don't know about it, check it out. Each one of the playhouse's plays has one night for 'Stage Left'. It's targeted towards young professionals, and offers discounted tickets, and a post-play meet-up at a local bar for discussion with the actor/director/writer of the play. Really cool way to learn more about the plays, and to meet some new people. Each one of the Stage Left events is 'hosted' by a Young Professional group, but it's open to anyone, and tickets are only $25. I'll post tomorrow my review of Bad Dates...though I have absolutely no credentials for rating plays other than my personal opinion on whether I was entertained or not!

Just want to put that out there, as I begin to post (yet again) about developments by 3CDC. As I have said in previous posts, I'll be happier once dirt starts moving on Fountain Square, the Banks, or Washington Park, but we keep getting a glimpse at progress (and it's real progress) by the crew at 3CDC. It really is great news for Cincinnati.

Some of the highlights in today's article. Possible House of Blues at 5th and Race (Vacant Parking Lot today), "vast, vast majority of the plan is privately financed", and if City Council okays plan when unveiled in late March/Early April then the project would begin this summer and be complete by Reds Opening Day in 2006!

Jumping off my bandwagon now, but wouldn't it be great to see a new Fountain Square, a House of Blues downtown, and some new condos and restaurants at the Banks all by end of year 2006?

Looks like XU is taking the UC queue and revamping and growing campus. It's good to see both campuses growing, as both can do a lot to help better their surrounding communities.

I started reading this article about Andrea Rosenthal and her passion for the Burnett Woods Summer Concert Series. I got about half way through, and I was completely on her side. It sucks that you start something and then when you push for the right thing to be done, the rug is ripped from under you, and handed to someone else.

Then I got to this part of the article:

"But at a meeting in 2003, park officials made it clear they preferred to assign the department's entire series of summer parks events to a single promoter. "We were saying, 'Hey, we're doing this for nothing. Why would you want to pay a promoter when we're willing to work for free for our neighborhood?' " DelGado says. Frustrated, the two Clifton women didn't submit a proposal at all. "It was just obvious it was going to be a big old waste of time," Rosenthal says.

Now I understand that they likely wouldn't want to submit a proposal to run the concert series for all parks in the Cincy Park system, but the best way not to win is to not submit an application. If they would have at least submitted their proposal to do the promotion of the Burnet Woods concert series for free, and gotten turned down, then I would have had more sympathy. But I can hardly be mad at Cincy Parks for not selecting someone who didn't apply.

Once again we're seeing progress in OTR. I can tell you that I would have never believed 6 months ago, that Tom Denhart would be looking to sell large chunks of his slumlord properties to private developers; Re-STOC (non-profit company the redevelops housing in OTR, albeit sometimes slower than most would like) would be holding discussions about developing market rate housing and selling some of it's property; and the Drop Inn Center would be open to discussions with corporate leaders about relocating some of it's transitional housing out of the Washington Park area.

Once again, I think the credit goes to 3CDC and it's ability to make things happen. All these discussions on OTR and the Banks are 100% right on to what Stephen Leeper (President of 3CDC) said would happen in his Sounding Board session with young professionals back in November. It's truly impressive, and they've got people doing real work behind the scenes. As soon as dirt starts moving on the banks and OTR, I'll be a lot happier, but the story in the Biz Courier is truly encouraging. Now I'm looking forward to seeing the final plan (including finance proposal) for the Fountain Square area, due in early Spring.